Once weighing nearly 200lb, the 5ft2-tall Kim Jong-il has had to count the
calories since suffering a stroke in 2008.

So perhaps it is no surprise that he stepped away from a tour of China's top factories and solar panel plants earlier this week to try and find some salad dressing at a local supermarket.

The 69-year-old leader of North Korea slipped out of his suite at the Yangzhou State Guest House at around four o'clock on Monday afternoon and strolled for five minutes to the Suguo supermarket.

Kim, who is a known gourmet, reportedly then accosted one sales clerk and asked "Where can I find oil for a salad?"

Good olive oil is, of course, hard to come by in North Korea, where the World Food Programme said in March there were more than six million people on the brink of starvation and requiring urgent food aid.

The WFP estimates that some 475,000 tons of food are needed, and Mr Kim was thought to be meeting Hu Jintao, the president of China, to discuss some of the problems on wednesday, as well as a resumption of talks over North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

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China remains North Korea's closest ally and the provider of significant amounts of food aid.

Mr Kim's appetite, meanwhile, has been the subject of several legends, including that he likes to have his sashimi carved from a live fish and that he hates anchovies on his pizza.

According to one of his chefs, Mr Kim sends trusted couriers to fetch him back Danish bacon, Iranian caviar and Thai mangos. A nephew of his first wife, meanwhile, relates that the Dear Leader likes to have his rice cooked over wood that has been cut down from Mount Paektu, Korea's sacred mountain.

There is even an institute in Pyongyang devoted to making sure Mr Kim eats only the healthiest produce.

But while the North Korean leader paid special attention to the rice and oil in the supermarket, which closed at 1.30pm especially for him, he came away empty-handed. He went on to board his special train before heading to Nanjing and then to Beijing.